1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ink composition and an ink jet recording method using the same.
2. Related Art
An ink jet recording method is a technique for recording information by ejecting ink droplets to apply the ink droplets onto a recording medium, such as a paper sheet. The ink jet recording method has been innovatively developed. Accordingly, ink jet recording apparatuses are used for recording on low-absorbent recording media such as book printing paper and non-absorbent recording media such as plastic films. For example, JP-A-2011-178980 discloses an ink composition used for such ink jet recording.
The ink composition of JP-A-2011-178980 contains water, a colorant, a water-soluble symmetrical both-end-type alkanediol, an organosiloxane, a resin, a poor water-soluble alkanediol, a crystalline sugar alcohol that is solid at 20° C., and a polyalkylene glycol. This ink composition can form high-quality images on a low-absorbent recording medium such as book printing paper.
An ink composition used for recording on low-absorbent or non-absorbent recording media forms images by being deposited on a recording medium without penetrating the recording medium. Accordingly, such an ink composition is required to have low tackiness (being dry and not tacky or sticky), high fixability, and high water fastness. If a large amount of a highly volatile solvent is added to an ink composition so that the ink composition can be rapidly dried to reduce the tackiness, however, the odor or toxicity of the volatile solvent is likely to cause the work environment of ink jet recording to deteriorate. It is desirable to achieve a very low tackiness without using a volatile solvent. However there has not been known such an ink composition. For example, the ink composition of the above-cited JP-A-2011-178980 contains large amounts of a solvent having a melting point in the range of 30° C. to less than 80° C. and a solvent having a melting point of less than 30° C. This ink composition cannot dry rapidly on non-absorbent recording media such as plastic films.